


Jailbird

by AlzazelSustrai



Series: Of Swords and Spiders [2]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: BAMF Percy Jackson, Gen, He's also. a bean., Misunderstandings, Not Beta Read, Percy Jackson is canonically terrifying and I think we should remember that
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-06
Updated: 2021-02-06
Packaged: 2021-03-18 14:47:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29245317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlzazelSustrai/pseuds/AlzazelSustrai
Summary: Peter starts spending time unaccounted for, and Tony Stark grows suspicious. Peter's new friend is... not someone he wants Peter to associate with.
Relationships: Percy Jackson & Peter Parker
Series: Of Swords and Spiders [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2147412
Comments: 19
Kudos: 174





	Jailbird

Peter’s been out a lot more than usual lately.

Now, this isn’t a bad thing at all– Tony’s been trying to make sure he makes more friends than his Star-Wars obsessed one and the very perceptive one that he might be dating. 

The problem is, he can’t figure out who Peter keeps meeting up with.

These days, Peter doesn’t text him (well, he doesn’t text Happy) that often. Normally, this just means he’s out patrolling the streets as Spider-Man again, but Spider-Man sightings have also declined.

Class is dismissed from Midtown, and Peter bids his two friends goodbye, and then vanishes.

This, Tony thinks, merits some investigation.

…

FRIDAY tracks Peter’s backpack downtown, past Central Park and into a rather shady area of town. Peter ducks into an alleyway next to the subway entrance, and meets up with a man. 

Tony can’t tell who it is from the grainy camera footage, but he’s tall, and built in a lean, wolfish way that speaks not of gym trips and sports, but of hunger and combat. They speak, then leave the alleyway.

The way the man holds himself brings back memories for Tony, and not the fond kind. He walks like the men in Afghanistan, there for too many tours, sent on too many excursions into enemy territory, survived too many firefights. Even back at base, they walked with an underlying tension, a loose sense of danger in that loping gait. It was the inherent knowledge that nothing where they currently were could harm them, the sense of superiority born from surviving hell.

How, then, did innocent high schooler Peter Parker know him?

They don’t do anything, either, and that sets Tony’s nerves on edge. Peter doesn’t look like he’s itching to go patrol as Spider-Man, perfectly content to stroll down the streets with this man, excitedly babbling at him, walking for the sake of walking. They stop at a candy shop, buying a handful of sweets– entirely electric blue– and share it as they do absolutely nothing else of note.

It doesn’t sit right with Tony– it goes against his knowledge of Peter’s character, who is so eager to prove himself that every moment not in school or doing homework is spent on the streets, trying to help his neighborhood become a safer place. And yet, This one man is… is _monopolizing_ Peter’s time, stealing him away from what Peter wants to do.

An icy chill shudders down Tony’s spine. Peter’s family is still not very well off, and Tony knows that Peter would do anything to lighten his aunt’s load. He doesn’t accept Tony’s money, but someone was willing to pay Peter for something– say, _companionship_ …

“FRIDAY. Find out who Peter’s walking with. Now, or five minutes ago if possible.”

“Searching cameras... Inconclusive facial scans. There are fifty-eight individuals in New York City that match the reconstructed features with above eighty percent accuracy.”

Tony curses, as colorfully as he knows how. 

He doesn’t even have a good excuse to demand Peter to stop associating with the man. That doesn’t mean Tony is going to give up though. There’s no way this man could be a _good_ influence on Peter.

…

In the end, he doesn’t have to go to any extreme measures. Peter comes to the Tower to test a new solution for his webs, and brings with him the wolfish man.

“Yo, Peter, this is where you’re interning? So fancy.” The man says, craning his neck to look at the labs. He speaks like a native New-Yorker, and is younger than Tony had originally thought– hardly past the cusp of adulthood, though he carries a weight far beyond his years. His hands stay firmly in his pockets, so Tony can’t even complain about him touching things.

Peter ducks his head shyly, then says “And here’s Mr. Stark.”

“Ah, your boss?” the man asks. He sticks his hand out for Tony to shake, no hint of recognition in his eyes. “I’m Peter’s friend. You can call me Percy,” he says cheerfully. The warmth in his voice doesn’t match the wariness in his eyes.

Tony shakes his hand, noting the carefully controlled strength in his grip. “Nice to meet you, Percy.”

Peter pipes up, “Percy, he’s also Iron Man.”

Tony prepares himself for some kind of reaction. Recognition is slow to come to the man, but then, he comes to a realization.

“The mech-suit dude!”

Never in Tony’s life has he been reduced to a “mech-suit dude.” He’s rather offended, and when he glances at Peter, he can see the mortification on his face.

Tony decides to help him out, for Peter’s sake. He claps a friendly hand onto Peter’s shoulder and looks Percy dead in the eyes. They’re a muddy blue-green, intense and fathomless, like the deepest point of Manhattan Harbour. “I’ll leave you guys to it, then– I’ll be over here if you need me, Peter. Percy,” here, he pauses, but Percy’s gaze doesn’t waver, “don’t touch anything.”

Those green eyes hold his gaze for a second too long before he smiles, all sharp white teeth. “Don’t worry– I know better than to touch anything in an inventor’s workshop.”

Peter drags him away, after that.

Tony whispers, “FRIDAY, who is he?”

“Facial recognition matches him to one Perseus Jackson. Would you like me to do a background scan?”

“Yeah.”

“I have sent the files to your computer, Mr. Stark.”

“Thanks, FRI.”

He pulls the file up, and is immediately absolutely horrified. The information places him at eighteen– younger than he’d feared, but older than Peter– with a rap sheet covering a full decade, ranging from incident reports from when he was in elementary school of property damage to straight-up arson. The charges were cleared very suspiciously, too. In stark contrast to Peter’s impeccable academic record, Perseus Jackson has been kicked out of every school with an almost clockwork consistency, every year until high school, where– Tony squints at the screen– his stepfather works. There is little doubt in his mind that Perseus only remains at school because of his stepfather’s influence.

He was a suspected terrorist, subject to a national manhunt and thought to have bombed the St. Louis Arch back in… he would have been _eleven_? He’d been seen all over North America and Europe, engaging in questionably legal activities, and in a timeframe that did not match the reported financial status of his family. 

There is something very fishy about Peter’s new friend, and Tony will get to the bottom of it.

…

“Oh, shoot, Peter, I promised Grover I’d go to a rally with him this afternoon, I gotta go.”

Tony’s pulled out of his research into Perseus by the subject of his interest himself. There are so many things that don’t add up, that indicate criminal activity, that he’d gotten sucked into articles and discussion boards before he knew it. 

Perseus waves goodbye to Peter, who gives an absentminded wave back, engrossed in documenting the reaction that he’d started in a beaker. He nods at Tony, wheels around, and walks out.

As soon as he’s gone, Tony gets up and nearly runs to Peter.

“Do you know who your friend is?” he demands in a low voice.

Peter blinks at him, snapping out of his experimentation daze. “Percy?”

“Yes, him, do you know who he is?” Tony asks, nearly frantic.

Peter tears his gaze from his experiment to frown in confusion. “I’m not sure I’m understanding your question, Mr. Stark.”

Tony pulls him towards his own workstation, and Peter follows, glancing back towards his experiment just once.

Wordlessly, Tony shows him the police reports, and watches Peter’s brown eyes get progressively wider. Clearly, he’d had no idea who he’d gotten involved with.

“I- I have to talk to Percy.” Peter stammers, spinning on his heel.

Before he could dash off, though, Tony barks, “Peter!”

He freezes, and turns back around. There’s panic in the whites of his eyes, in the set of his mouth.

“Be careful. Call if you need help.”

Peter nods, and whirls around and is out the door.

Tony picks up the phone. 

“Hey, Natasha? I’m gonna need your help.”


End file.
